Royal Caribbean – Harmony of the Seas – Part 1 – Main Dining

My dad loves cruises. Every time I visit home he has the cruise channel on and he’s telling me about an amazing cruise he’s just been on or is planning on going on. He’s been trying to convince me to go on a cruise for a good 4 years now. So I finally bit the bullet and decided I’d go on one. He recommended Harmony of the Seas. I asked where he thought I should go and his exact words were ‘ah don’t be worrying about where it stops and just go on that ship’ so we picked a date it was leaving that suited myself and LP. Our 7-night cruise departed from Fort Lauderdale and took us to Labadee (Haiti), Falmouth (Jamaica), and Cozumel (Mexico) before returning to Fort Lauderdale.

Obviously, food is the main driving factor for me and since there was so much food on board I’m going to do 3 or 4 separate blog posts. Nobody wants to read a blog post the length of a thesis.

I’d trust my dad to an extent with food recommendations but he’s not as adventurous as I am (says your one who only ate her first oyster a few weeks ago). On Harmony of the Sea’s, there are restaurants that are included in your cruise price and others which are an additional fee. The fee paying restaurants vary in both theme and price. There’s Jamie’s Italian, Wonderland, Sabor, and 150 Central Park to name a few.

The main dining area (which is what this blog post is about) is spread over 3 decks in 3 different restaurants. Silk, The Grande and American Icon Grill. They all serve the same food but have a different decor. You are assigned a restaurant when you get your room and if you want to dine in the main dining area you go to that one. The menu changes every night and is quite varied. Some items on the menu are always there, they are the ‘classics’. They also have 3-4 optional fee paying dishes. There are two dishes on the menu every night that the chef recommends.

We dined in Silk on 3 nights. Starters on our first night were Vidalia Onion Tart (gruyere, roasted pepper & leek fondant) and Beef Carpaccio (arugula, crispy garlic, shaved parmesan & dijon mustard). Both of these were really tasty and were presented well.

For our mains, I opted for the Horseradish Crusted Salmon (celeriac mash, snow peas, lemon beurre blanc) as it was on the chef recommendation list. LP had New York Sirloin (seasonal vegetables, baked potato, natural gravy). My fish was gorgeous. The presentation was ‘meh’ but it still tasted nice. LP’s dish looked like something you get at a Sunday carvery and not a ‘fancy’ restaurant. It was also overcooked which we put down to a mistake of our own by not realising that medium rare is more medium.

For dessert LP was kept satisfied because there was Crème Brûlée on the menu. It was actually on the ‘classic’ menu so was available every day. I had a creamy Olive Oil Pudding (fresh raspberries, mandarin, white chocolate lavender crumble). It’s risky putting lavender in anything. Overdo it and you’ll ruin the dish and it’ll leave a soap taste in your mouth. It was not the case with this dish and it was probably one of the nicest desserts I’ve ever had.

Our second night in Silk was ‘Lobster night’. We actually had a bit of a mad panic because we didn’t realise it was lobster night. Lobster night is a formal night and we were both casually dressed so had to dash back up to the room to get changed. This was the night that I was looking forward to most but unfortunately, it was a bit of a letdown.

For my starter, I had Smoked Chicken Breast (fennel-orange salad, Cointreau-citrus vinegarette). LP had Arancini (arborio rice, portobello mushroom, sauteed spinach, arrabbiata sauce). There was a lack of chicken (maybe 4 pieces) in my salad. If I was starving I’d have been annoyed. LPs Arancini was a bit bland for me.

The lobster wasn’t the best lobster I’ve ever had nor was it the worst. Was it worth getting dressed up for? Absolutely not. It was served with seasonal vegetables and saffron rice. The rice was the nicest part of the dish. The veg (on pretty much all the dishes we had) reminded me of boil in the bag veg. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I just expected something with more flavour.

In addition to his lobster, LP also got the beef tenderloin which not only was presented well but tasted great too. I should point out that you can order more than one dish which was something we didn’t actually realise until lobster night.

Beef Tenderloin (mashed potatoes, cognac-pepper sauce)

Desserts tasted good but yet again presentation let them down. They looked very messy. I had Key Lime Pie, LP had Chocolate Souffle with Praline Sauce.

Key Lime PieChocolate Souffle with Praline Sauce

Our last night eating in Silk was also our final night on the boat. I had my favourite starter of our 3 nights (and possibly the nicest meal in Silk) on this night. Salmon Gravlax (blueberry-dill cured, crème fraîche). LP had the French Onion Soup which looked messy but tasted lovely.

LP had Slow Roasted Prime Rib (potato croquette, broccoli, horseradish jus) and it was a really nice piece of meat.

Slow Roasted Prime Rib (potato croquette, broccoli, horseradish jus)

We both skipped dessert. If I ate any more I’d have needed to be rolled off the boat.

Overall opinion of the main dining area on Harmony of the Seas.

Two of my three meals there were really good. The olive oil pudding as I said was one of the nicest desserts I’ve ever had. The two things I felt let down by was the presentation and the vegetable selection. The other dining option which is included in your cruise price is the Windjammer which is a buffet. If buffet isn’t your style then the main dining areas would be ideal.

That’s all for now. I’ll talk about Windjammer, Sabor, and Wonderland in my following posts.